Iron Age weaving comb, Harwell, Oxon

3D Model

This comb was found in a settlement excavated at Harwell, Oxfordshire, which was occupied during the Early–Middle Iron Age (5th to 3rd centuries BC). It was made from the metapodial of a horse that was split, smoothed until it was flat and reshaped – dimensions 172 mm long, 31 mm wide and 6 mm thick. There were originally seven teeth but only the stubs of the two right hand ones survive. The comb was probably used to manufacture narrow pieces of patterned textile. Its decorated surface features a human face at the hemispherical end making it unique amongst decorated weaving combs in southern England.

For more info see:

A.P. Fitzpatrick 2020 A face from the British Iron Age: a decorated Iron Age weaving comb from Harwell, Oxfordshire. Oxford Journal of Archaeology online

S. Thompson, 2018 Early to Middle Iron-Age and later settlement at Grove Road, Harwell, Oxoniensia 83, 139–96.